ACCP Disaster Reports Highlights That Companies Are Eager to Support Disaster Relief

The ACCP recently released their 2015 ACCP Benchmarking Disaster Report, and findings highlight that a large number of ACCP member companies invest a fair amount of their respective corporate social responsibility resources in disaster relief efforts. The ACCP disaster report features data gathered from 76 ACCP members from the 2014 to 2015 fiscal year. Remarkably, the disaster report points out that 96 percent of respondents provided some form of disaster relief during that time frame.

Regarding donation sources of disaster relief grants, the ACCP disaster report highlighted that 40 percent of donations came from corporations. Twenty-two percent came from foundations, and 33 percent came from joint corporate and foundation programs. Interestingly, when it comes to disaster relief participation by industry, 80 percent of banking and finance industries participated. Ninety percent of pharmaceutical and biotech industries participated, and 80 percent of technology companies participated. In comparison, only 67 percent of insurance companies and 63 percent of food and beverage companies participated. Fifty-one percent of participants in the ACCP disaster report contributed cash donations, and 49 percent contributed cash and product donations. Remarkably, 100 percent of biotech and pharmaceutical participants noted that they donated both cash and products, and 100 percent of insurance participants noted that they donated only cash.

Most donors provided resources either to disaster relief or disaster recovery, and 100 percent of banking and finance, insurance, and pharmaceutical and biotech respondents typically donate during the so-called disaster relief stage—the initial relief stage immediately following a natural disaster. Forty-eight percent of respondents have employee assistance programs, and 52 percent of respondents directly fund their giving through corporation resources. In short, as the ACCP disaster report notes, a wide range of major companies actively participate in disaster relief, and certain industries—such as technology and biotech industries—have a predilection towards donating to disaster relief efforts. As the report pointed out, many of the participants recognized the importance of donating products to disaster relief efforts. Oftentimes, disaster relief organizations require specific products or items to assist disaster victims properly (such as canned food items and bottled water). That’s why Good 360 created Disaster Recovery 360: this digital platform allows nonprofits to create real-time lists of the items they need to bring about positive relief to communities affected by natural disasters. Learn more about Disaster Recovery 360 here.

Shabab Gruberg is the President of Good360. He developed the largest online product philanthropy platform, GivingPlace, connecting charities, companies, and people who care. Think 4 million diapers, 10,000 mattresses, and 8,000 cartons of apparel in 2014 alone. His passion is solving problems, and there is no problem too big or small. He has consulted over 150 nonprofits, optimizing their business development, developed a system and process to take off-line medical offices online over a weekend, and spent years teaching community college students Linux.